Page 5 of Hell & Back

And now Tuck lay on a surgical table fighting for his life and Darren hadn’t been able to do a damn thing to stop it.

He dropped his hands and found they were shaking and covered in Tuck’s blood. After this, there was no way around it; the club was going to war. They just had to decide how they were going to do it. Were they going to go balls to the wall like the Phantoms, leaving a trail of blood and dead bodies along the way and possibly have it drag on for months, if not years? Or would they be strategic and plan it out carefully, so they took out the entire rival club at one time and never have to worry about them popping up again?

Fuck. He needed to get Tuck’s blood off his hands before Kylie got there. He turned to do just that when Jed and Chris walked in carrying a gym bag.

“Hey.” Jed walked up to him and gave him a one-armed man hug then stepped back for Chris to do the same. “Race called and said to bring you a change of clothes in case you needed it. Raided your room at the clubhouse.” He held the bag toward Darren.

“What?” Darren didn’t understand.

“Your clothes,” Jed shook the bag toward Darren in an up down motion.

He looked down at himself and sure enough, his jeans and shirt were covered in Tuck’s blood, too. Shit. Here he was worried about the blood on his hands. “Thanks, brother.”

“I saw a bathroom down the hall.” Jed hitched a thumb over his shoulder in the direction he was talking about. “You need to hurry. Race, Bellamy and Kylie were coming into the hospital as the elevator doors were closing.”

“Thanks.” Darren nodded his head and took off down the hall. It turned out to be a one-stall bathroom, giving him plenty of space to clean up and change without having to worry about freaking someone out if they happened upon him. He locked the door then proceeded to strip down to his underwear. His stomach clenched at the smeared blood covering his lower stomach, thighs and hands. Well, if that wasn’t enough to cause nightmares.

He desperately wanted to be there when Kylie got to the waiting room, so he grabbed a handful of paper towels out of the wall dispenser and started to wipe away the worst of it. He went for more but only found a couple left. Well shit. Just his luck. He set them aside and yanked on the clean clothes Jed brought him, then hurriedly scrubbed his hands with soap and water, getting them as clean as he could get them. He used the two paper towels he had left to dry his hands, then shoved his bloodied clothes back in the gym bag.

He hurried back to waiting room and quickly checked out the new occupants. Damn it. Race, Bellamy and Kylie were already here. He headed straight for his woman. “Kylie.”

She turned at the sound of his voice. His breath caught in his chest. Her face was pale and tears pooled in her eyes. “Darren.” She ran into his arms, almost bowling him over. He dropped the bag at his feet and encircled his arms around her, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. Jed quietly retrieved the bag and stepped back to give them room. Kylie pulled back, settling her hands on his chest. “What is going on? All Race would say was that Tuck was hurt and had to be taken to the hospital.”

“Baby, let’s have a seat,” he started, but she was having none of it.

“No. Tell me what’s going on. Every time someone says ‘let’s have a seat’ it’s bad news. So just spit it out.” Kylie’s arms dropped from his chest and she took a step back.

“Baby, please.”

He reached to pull her into his arms again, but she shook her head and yelled, “Tell me!”

Damn it. He’d hoped to cushion the blow, but she wasn’t letting him do it. What he had to say was going to rock her world and he hated being the one to do it to her.

He shared a quick look over her shoulder to Race and got a silent nod to go ahead and fill her in on what happened and who was responsible for shooting Tuck. She wasn’t stupid. She’d done research on Chet, a brother from the Phantom Furies MC, for the club when he’d taken money from the Sons. They’d also kidnapped her and had hoped to get her to put the stolen money back into their accounts, so it wouldn’t be a far reach for her to connect the dots and determine it was the same club fucking with them now. He took a deep breath and released it. “Honey, on the way home we stopped for gas. While I was inside, a car pulled up and a man wearing a Phantom Furies cut stepped out of a car and shot Tuck. He’s in surgery right now.”

“What?” Her brows dipped in confusion and her eyes appeared out of focus, like she was having a hard time soaking in what he’d told her. In his peripheral vision he could see the other brothers spreading out around the room, silently surrounding her, not sure how she was going to react but wanting to be there for her in any way they could.

“Baby, Tuck was shot and he’s in surgery.” His heart was breaking for Kylie.

Her hand went to her forehead before she asked, “How,” she cleared her throat and tried again. “How bad is it?”

Darren’s eyes were glued to hers, but he didn’t miss how Race crept closer to Kylie and was now standing directly behind her. “They fired three times.”

She took a couple of steps back, widening the space between them. “He was shot three times?” she whispered.

“Yes. Once in the leg, once in the stomach and once,” he rubbed a hand over his mouth and exhaled heavily. “And maybe once in the head.”

“Nooooo!” Kylie screamed and her legs gave out. Race was there to catch her and keep her from hitting the ground. He dropped to his knees, his legs folding as his butt hit his heels so that she was sitting on his lap.

“Kylie! Kylie, baby! Please calm down.” Darren dropped to his knees in front of them, freaked the fuck out at Kylie’s reaction. It was bad enough they didn’t know how Tuck was fairing in surgery, but if Kylie didn’t calm down, he worried something bad could happen to the baby. He grabbed both her hands and squeezed, trying to get her attention.

“No! No! No!” She was trying to thrash around in Race’s arms, trying to get loose. What she planned on doing once she was free, he had no idea.

“Kylie!” Race barked loud enough to cause her to jump and momentarily stop screaming. “Kylie. You have to stay calm for the baby. You don’t want anything to happen to the baby, do you?”

She hiccupped and shook her head.

“You need to stay calm and not give up on Tuck just yet. The man is strong. He’s just found you again and is going to be a father soon. There’s no way he won’t be fighting to be here for you.” He rocked her back and forth until she was able to get herself under control. “You good now, darlin’?”

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